Although I would not call myself an expert by any means, I've been researching this at length over the last couple of years (want to replace my 30 year old 300SD with a TDI when funds allow; I will NOT go back to g@$), and as firehawk said, the '05-'06 PD engine requires a special oil....and, apparently, if the previous owner didn't use the special oil (and sometimes even if it WAS used), you're potentially facing a camshaft failure in the future. For this reason, I wouldn't even consider a PD engine unless there was full maintenance records stating that the correct oil was used in each oil change since the car was new...and, apparently, even the dealers are known for using the wrong oil (IIRC the spec for PD engines is 505.01, and the spec for the '09 CR engine is 507.00, but please double-check that).
I don't post often enough on here to know if it's considered bad etiquette to link to a different message forum that might help you better with this question, but I would suggest doing some web searching for issues with the PD engine. AFAIK, the only major issue is the premature camshaft wear. I haven't followed the PD engines as closely since I want a wagon (so, I pretty much get to choose between the '09 Sportwagen and the '03 Jetta), so there may be more that I don't know about.
I don't think anyone's actually found any problems with the '09 yet, but since it hasn't been out all that long, it's really too early to tell. The exhaust system hasn't demonstrated any problems yet (other than regeneration cycles every 300 or so miles, that have a negative impact on your fuel economy), but people are worried about the pricetag attached to a system failure. I'm not really afraid of it...
Just my $.02 :) |
